May 11, 2004
US torture in Afghanistan comes to light
A former Afghan police colonel gave a graphic account in an interview this week of being subjected to beating, kicking, sleep deprivation, taunts and sexual abuse during about 40 days he spent in American custody last summer. He also said he had been repeatedly photographed, often while naked."I swear to God, those photos shown on television of the prison in Iraq — those things happened to me as well," the former officer, Sayed Nabi Siddiqui, 47, said in the interview on Sunday at his home in the village of Sheikho, on the edge of the eastern town of Gardez.
His account could not be independently verified, but members of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission accompanied a reporter during the interview and said his story matched the one given to them last fall, shortly after his release and long before the abuse at the Abu Ghraib near Baghdad came to light.
The commission, which was set up by the transitional government of President Hamid Karzai in 2002 and receives money from the United States Congress and other foreign donors, has in recent months received 44 complaints against various actions by American forces.
Those include several on the abuse of detainees who have alleged rough and degrading treatment, including being stripped naked and doused with cold water, even before the pictures of prisoner abuse emerged in Iraq. Afghan military and police officials say they have heard similar stories from detainees and their families.
The torture of prisoners started with the war on terror. Since Iraq was justified as a war against terrorists, the Pentagon, and most likely Don Rumsfeld himself, had no problem in authorizing Afghanistan style torture for POWs in Iraq.
We have no moral authority left. Our actions are the best recruiting tools a terrorist could ask for.
Posted by Norwood at May 11, 2004 11:39 PM